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The chronicler of the Dutch town of Antorff was not lacking in clarity: The “dreadful water hardship and ruin” were “otherwise not to be recognized for a punishment from God”.

It was not for nothing that this fell on the people of the North Sea coast on November 1st, 1570, the day of All Saints' Day.

The catastrophe is engraved in memories as the “All Saints Flood”, especially in the Netherlands, since it is considered the worst flood disaster to hit the country before the 20th century.

Although the flood of 1570 is believed to be the first to be warned by the authorities (meaning the Bergen op Zoom Domain Council), most victims were unprepared when horror struck them.

The storm surge, which even exceeded the "Hollandsturm" of 1953 with water levels of more than four meters above normal, destroyed countless dikes.

“From Holland to Jutland,” it says in a chronicle, “everything was turned into a wild water desert in a single night.

No dike withstood, no village remained unscathed, and more than 100,000 people found their graves in the waves. "

The islands of the province of Zeeland were almost completely flooded

Source: picture alliance / Everett Colle

Although historians have now corrected the number of victims to between 10,000 and 25,000, the devastation has been enormous.

Tens of thousands were left homeless, livestock and supplies were destroyed.

In the Antwerp area alone, four villages sank under masses of sand and silt.

The country was flooded as far as the Altes Land on the Elbe and Vierlanden near Hamburg.

Whole peasant communities also disappeared in East Frisia and on the offshore islands.

In some places the salt water stood for four weeks and ruined the fields and meadows.

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The center of the disaster, however, was in the Netherlands.

There, the All Saints Flood of 1570 is considered the worst of the more than 100 severe flood disasters that have been counted since 1000 AD.

The Duke of Alba, who as governor tried by draconian means to suppress the uprising of the 17 provinces against the Spanish crown, wrote to his employer Philip II in consternation: Five sixths of Holland were under water.

Those affected saw “the righteous wrath and righteousness of the Almighty” at work, which only spurred them on to take action against the repression of the Protestant faith by the Spaniards.

The conquest of the coastal provinces of Zeeland and Holland by the rebellious Geusen in 1572 could well have been facilitated by the severe devastation caused by the All Saints Flood.

The storm surge of September 1, 1953 went down in Dutch history as "de Ramp" (catastrophe)

Source: picture-alliance / Leemage

When the worst storm surge of the 20th century hit the coast of the Netherlands on February 1, 1953, memories of the All Saints Flood were awakened again.

Although the number of victims was significantly lower - 1,835 dead, most of them in Zeeland and Holland - the scale of the disaster, which also devastated large parts of Belgium and Great Britain, brought back memories of 1570. More than 40,000 houses were damaged and 200,000 hectares of farmland were flooded , 500 kilometers of dykes damaged or destroyed.

Tens of thousands had to be evacuated.

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The flood of 1953 gave the impetus for an ambitious coastal protection program, the structures of which have since proven to be reasonably resilient.

In 1570, the reconstruction took considerably longer, especially since the eighty-year war of freedom against the Spaniards continued.

But the Geusen relied primarily on their superiority at sea, which was also reflected in the conquest of the lucrative trade routes to India and the Caribbean.

In the 17th century the northern provinces, the States General, rose to become the most powerful trading power on earth.

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This article was first published in 2017.